La Tela, a Cultural and Social Association of my neighbourhood in Rome, asked me to participate with a performance to their event dedicated to nature and the benefits of trees on Sunday 22 October 2023.

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The action was starting by in inviting the inhabitants of the neighborhood to focus on the presence of trees, even the less obvious ones, the slender ones that inhabit our squares and streets, like the one in the center of the square, and entrust our prayer to him and to the wind. A propitiatory ritual that draws inspiration from a Japanese holiday called Tanabata, during which the trees are filled up with hanging paper notes with a wish written on them that you would like to come true in the future.  Those in attendance were able to entrust their wish to pen and paper and hang it on the branches; the tree and the wind took care of spreading and dispersing all of them.

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Mine was an invitation to listen. By focusing with all our senses on the little things around us, imaginative scenarios open up and we can celebrate our communion with nature. A tree is standing in the center of  Piazza della Trasfigurazione in Rome, right in front of the church.  I liked to use this location. A small installation with sound entitled GUARDIAN TREE was standing as the backdrop of my participatory action. Made up of branches from which clay ears seem to grow like gems, this installation focuses on the quality of the trees that silently listen to voices and sounds and, like angels, guard our secrets and desires. The sound that accompanies the installation comes from fragments of recordings collected during the past days under the trees in Piazza della Trasfigurazione, a square very frequented by the young people of the district.